Inspirited Wellness Podcast – Episode 8: Fear of Illness
Today I want to talk to you about fear – specifically, about fear of illness.
Terror over disease has been escalating over the past several years – for many different reasons – but it’s really come to a head with the hysteria over the novel corona virus.
If you’re one of the people who are on the fearful side, I’m guessing that you probably have general fear or anxiety over all illnesses. I don’t expect this podcast to fix the problem, but I’d like to put some things in perspective and offer some suggestions on how to deal with you fears.
On Fear
Fear is meant to be a temporary condition to alert us when something is wrong, or in reaction to danger. It’s a survival mechanism.
It’s not meant to be a chronic state of being. Living in a state of chronic fear and anxiety not only effects our mental and emotional health, but our physical health as well. Over time, it breaks down and destroys our immune systems and will lead to even greater susceptibility to disease.
Media Reporting
We like to believe that the media is simply reporting the facts.
I can say with certainty that the media NEVER reports the complete story when it comes to illness and disease. It’s up to us to use discernment and common sense when it comes to what we see on the news.
Here are a couple of things that I look for when I hear about any disease being reported in the news.
- What was the health status of the person who died?
- How was the person treated? Were the treatments suppressive or supportive?
We know that people suffering with chronic illnesses have weakened immune systems will succumb more readily to an acute viral illness. Most of the people who have died from the corona virus fall into this category, so this is obviously an important detail when we hear about someone who has died from an illness.
Knowing how people are being treated after they get sick is also very important. We know that giving suppressive medications like Tamiflu, fever reducers, or corticosteroids can be very harmful. These medications not only suppress the immune system and confuse the vital force, but there are many side affects that come with all pharmaceuticals.
Not only do suppressive treatments counteract the work of the immune system, but cytokine reactions can also be triggered. A cytokine reaction is where the immune system is actually too strong. The mechanisms of action that the immune system invokes to fight a virus goes into overdrive, causing organ and tissue damage, which can lead to death.
Knowing the answers to these 2 questions are vital to really understanding how to respond to media reporting that is almost always presented in a way that causes the most fear.
Unfortunately, very few people, including the media, understand this, so panic ensues when people hear reports about a brand-new illness, but they give no other context about how and why people are dying.
What we know
We know that this 2019 nCoV has a fairly low fatality rate and that most of the people who have died have been elderly or had compromised immune systems.
We know that Influenza kills far more people than 2019 nCoV. In fact, Influenza has killed approximately 20,000 people since October, but the flu is so common that our perceived threat of the flu is less, even though it’s more deadly. (Isn’t the brain fascinating?)
2019 nCoV has killed fewer people than SARS.
Prevention is the same as for the cold and flu virus – wash hands and avoid touching your face.
Most people who have been infected make complete recoveries.
There is absolutely no reason to panic at this point!
Social Ramifications of Fear
As I said at the beginning, fear is meant to be a temporary state in order to keep us alive. Our sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system kicks in in response to a threat, or perceived threat.
Unless we’re in imminent danger of death or dismemberment, we’re not our best when we’re operating or reacting from a state of fear.
We like to think that we’re so enlightened in this day in age. We’re all about social justice and equality. But all of that goes right out the window when human beings are in a fearful state.
Our more primitive brain gets triggered, we don’t think as clearly, and we make choices that we might not otherwise make if we weren’t in a fear state.
This is where people are willing to give up their freedoms and rights in order to try feel a false sense of safety.
I was reading this article where almost 10,000 people in Canada signed a petition to keep recent travelers from China out of school.
One of the signers wrote:
“This has to stop. Stop eating wild animals and then infecting everyone around you,” one petition signer wrote. “Stop the spread and quarantine yourselves or go back.”
Besides the fact that no one in North America should be telling another person to back to where they came from, this is the kind of tribal, racist thinking that people revert to out of fear.
This kind of reaction isn’t specific to the corona virus, this kind of fear reactivity happens all the time, in many different situations.
Homeopathy
Those of you who use and study homeopathy, know how powerful it is in dealing with epidemics. Homeopathy has had incredible success in treating epidemics of Typhus, Cholera, Yellow Fever, Diphtheria, and of course, the flu of 1918.
While conventionally treated patients had a mortality rate of around 28%, patients who were treated with homeopathy had a mortality rate of just over 1%. That, my friends, is not a placebo effect.
In homeopathy, we look at the symptoms and study the progression of illness. Epidemic Updates from Paul Herscu is a fabulous resource and this link will take you to Dr. Herscu’s recommendations regarding the corona virus, as well as offer his very reasonable perspective.
It pays to be prepared. Research the primary remedies for respiratory infections and get really familiar with them. There’s no substitution for this and being prepared in this way offers the best antidote to fear.
Takeaways
Again…there’s absolutely no reason to panic!
Build and restore your immune system with your everyday lifestyle choices. Get a handle on your thought life. Your thoughts have a huge impact on your mental and physical health. Make choices and do activities every day that nourish your body, mind, and spirit.
When you get sick, this is the time to support your immune system. It’s not necessarily the time to use a lot of supplements and herbs that build up the immune system. Rest, hydrate, and nourishment are the key actions during any illness and convalescence.
There’s nothing wrong with studying the corona virus and its symptom picture in order to gain knowledge about it – as long as it doesn’t tip you over into fear and anxiety.
Finally, address your fears! Living in a state of fear is bad for your mental and emotional health, as well as your immune system. When your mental state, immune system, and organ systems begin breaking down due to being in a constant fight or flight state, you end up even more susceptible to the very diseases you were frightened of.
Gemmotherapy and Homeopathy are the perfect tools to help calm that sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and get you back into a parasympathetic (rest and digest) state of being.
The information contained in this blog is for educational purposes only and not a replacement for medical advice. Any questions or concerns regarding your specific health-care needs should be addressed to your health-care provider. The author is not a medical doctor and will not be held liable for any outcomes linked to this information. The user takes full and complete responsibility for all outcomes to yourself or any other party as a result of any information contained or linked on this blog.
